Thursday, April 14, 2016

Stopping Zika one bucket at a time -- April 14, 2016 column

By MARSHA MERCER

Congressional Republicans are balking at
President Barack Obama’s request for $1.9 billion in emergency funds to prevent
and treat the Zika virus, which is transmitted by mosquitoes. Why the
reluctance?

“They haven’t been bitten yet,” said Sen.
Barbara Mikulski of Maryland, top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee.

Zing!

It’s politics as usual in Washington. Republicans
said the administration should use already allocated funds, so Obama shifted
$510 million from the fight against Ebola in West Africa and $79 million from diseases
like malaria and tuberculosis to Zika.

But that’s not enough, said Dr. Anthony
Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at
the National Institutes of Health, who’s holding out for the full $1.9 billion.

“I’m not an alarmist,” Fauci told reporters
Monday, “but the more we learn about the neurological aspects (of Zika), the
more we look around and say, `This is very serious.’”

The nation’s top docs say the Zika threat is
“scarier” than initially thought. Zika causes severe birth defects in newborns and
is linked in adults to Guillain-Barre syndrome, an immune system disorder, said
the Centers for Disease Control.

So far, no mosquitoes have transmitted the
virus in the United States, although officials say that could change this
summer.

The 346 Zika cases reported in 40 states are
all travel-related. Florida has the most with 85 cases. In Virginia, nine cases have been reported. Tennessee has had two cases,
and Alabama, one.

In Puerto Rico, where mosquitoes are
spreading the virus, hundreds of thousands of cases are expected this year. The
government is distributing Zika prevention kits there and in other hard-hit
areas.

There’s hope for a vaccine, with trials
possibly starting in September. Obama is expected to sign into law a measure
providing incentives to pharmaceutical companies to develop Zika treatments.

Once again, though, neither the White House
nor Congress has thought to enlist ordinary Americans in fighting the threat.
After 9/11 when the government mobilized for the war on terror, leaders asked nothing
of most people. About 1 percent of Americans volunteered for war; the rest were
told to go shopping.

With Zika, the government is asking women
who are pregnant or plan to be not to travel to affected areas.

But if we ever we needed a common enemy to
draw us together, it’s now. Americans may be poles apart politically, but it’s
safe to say nobody likes mosquitoes. Even before Zika, mosquitoes brought us
West Nile Virus, and still do. To them, we’re just a meal.

Officials say Aedes aegypti, a.k.a. yellow fever mosquito, is most likely to
transmit Zika. It has been found in 30 states, including throughout the
Southeast. Until its tie with Zika, this mosquito
was known for causing more casualties in the Spanish-American War than combat.

So, what’s a patriot to do in the undeclared
war on mosquitoes? I stopped by the Arlington County (Va.) Cooperative
Extension Service office and learned more about mosquitoes than I knew to ask.

For example, only the female mosquito bites.
She needs a blood meal to lay eggs. The Aedes
aegypti deposits hundreds of them on wet container walls or near standing
water. Even if the surface is dry, the eggs can hang on for months. When water reappears,
they hatch and grow to full-grown in a week.

Chemical insecticides often kill the
beneficial insects along with the pests and can be bad for pets and pond fish.
So, before you hire an exterminator, have a “dump the bucket” party in your
neighborhood. Empty cans, flower pots and birdbaths weekly.

Get rid of old tires. Put goldfish in your
pond to eat mosquito larvae or use larvicide donuts. Check gutters and
downspouts to be sure they are free flowing and don’t hold water. Repair window
screens.

When possible, wear long sleeves and long
pants. Use products containing DEET, picaridin or oil of lemon eucalyptus on
exposed skin – but not under clothes. Follow the label instructions.

And listen to Mikulski: “The mosquitoes are
coming. You can’t build a wall to keep them out, and the mosquitoes can’t pay
for it.”

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